1. Netflix lets its customers eat cake

1. Netflix lets its customers eat cake

It would have taken releasing a flawed product and then blaming that product's problems on the way people were using it (whoops, that was Apple last year) to knock Netflix and its year of muddled merriment from the top of our turkey list.

How do we put this diplomatically? OK, we can't, so let's call it like it is: 2011 was the year Netflix blew it.

All that customer faith built over a decade got stomped into jelly this year. It wasn't the price hike that infuriated as much as the way Netflix appeared so clueless and cavalier in the way it raised them. The move was straight out of the Marie Antoinette school of public relations. After that, the real chaos ensued with missed subscriber-estimates and the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't Qwikster service and the dismal earnings forecast for 2012.

Lest we forget that Netflix's troubles are far from behind it, word comes now that the company is selling off $200 million in convertible notes to help raise money. How's this for a kicker? Netflix is also cash strapped.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Enjoy your turkeys.

--By Greg Sandoval